Janet Afary, a visiting professor in the Department of History, will discuss her forthcoming book, "Sexual Politics in Modern Iran" (Cambridge University Press, 2009), at a public event on May 19. This related op-ed recently appeared in the Guardian newspaper.

Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, tells the harrowing story of her time as a political prisoner in Iran to a packed room of scholars and well-wishers on campus. She was a guest of the Center for Near Eastern Studies and the Center for Middle East Development.

Shortly after accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women's Media Foundation, Amira Hass delivers two talks on campus sponsored by the Center for Near Eastern Studies. "Diary of Bergen-Belsen: 1944-1945," Hass's mother's account of surviving the Nazi concentration camp, has been republished in English.

At a conference that considered the impact of the French philosopher Michel Foucault on Middle East studies, visiting historian Janet Afary explains that the story of Iranian women since the Revolution is not entirely one of repression.

Summer workshop for K-12 educators explores food in Middle Eastern and North African History and Cultures

The duo, Noam Yifrach and Younis Al-Khatib, are the heads, respectively, of the Maghen David Adom (MDA) and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), the Israeli and Palestinian equivalents of the Red Cross.

A year-long film screening/speaker series exploring the local permutations of Hip Hop Culture in the Middle East and North Africa within the widely varying configurations of language, culture, politics, and religion in the region.

Photographer Nik Wheeler, a Vietnam War photographer, photojournalist and now a freelance photographer, took the iconic National Geographic images of the Marsh Arabs, or Mad'an.

Israel's recent assault on Gaza by land, sea and air against the backdrop of its control over the territory was a disturbing violation of Palestinians' human rights, speakers at the symposium said.

Conferences on Women in Conflict Zones, Iranian-American Writers, and Foucault in the Middle East

Lecture by renowned Algerian cartoonist Slim, films on Islam inaugurate year-long program

The fact that New Orleans has a very small Middle Eastern population doesn't stop carnival krewes--organizations that put on parade and balls for the carnival season--from pulling out all the stops on the road to a make-believe Mecca.

Barbara Slavin discusses opportunities for reconciliation between Iran and the United States.

Nearly every women's rights bill passed by the Iranian reformist parliament that the Guardian Council effectively cast out in 2004 met one doom or another. Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, a former legislator, illuminates the paths of Iranian-style gridlock.

A photographic exhibition focusing on Sefrou, Morocco, highlights the work of Paul Hyman

Typologizing jihadi movements, historicizing their emergence, tracing their ideologies

A daylong conference recently attempted to clear some of the fog surrounding the real Osama bin Laden, who, if he's still alive, turns 50 this month. Titled "Jihadi Islam," the Nov. 13 event was sponsored by the Center for Near Eastern Studies and held at the UCLA Faculty Center.

Peter Reiss, director of a USAID program to restore the world's second-largest wetlands, explains how Saddam Hussein's drainage of the area has altered an ancient culture.

The UCLA National Resource Center and Organized Research Unit boasts some 70 faculty members, 250 current graduate students, and over 500 PhDs in Middle East and Islamic Studies.

27 features, shorts and documentaries screening at locations around the city, including UCLA, USC, the Writer's Guild Theater, and the ArcLight Theater